DETROIT — For the first full month of the season, a discussion within and around the Cardinals as the team sought to differentiate this year’s start to how last year finished was how it’s “in every game.â€
There have been a few real clunkers at Busch Stadium and the pyrotechnics of opening day at Dodger Stadium were reserved for the host Dodgers, but the Cardinals have mostly played tight, hairpin games. Of their first 31, 24 have been decided by three or fewer runs, and in 16, the Cardinals have scored three or fewer runs. As they concluded a six-game road trip that followed their 2006 voyage from Queens to a World Series in Detroit without Adam Wainwright’s curveball to close for them, five of the games were decided by three or fewer runs.
They are routinely on the brink and one swing away.
Quite literally.
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After the 4-1 loss to Detroit on Wednesday, four words spoken by manager Oliver Marmol captured the entirety of the season thus far.
“Just not enough offense,†he said. “Look at the games we’ve been dropping. We’re in every game. Just not enough runs across the board. We just have to score. It’s simple. If you look at our game, it’s a good game. We’re creating opportunities. We’re not getting the next big hit. It’s happened often. So we have to figure out a way to get on the other side of it. It goes in cycles. Ready for this cycle to be over.â€
CBC graduate and Detroit third baseman Matt Vierling lifted the Tigers to the three-run victory Wednesday at Comerica Park by creating with one swing what the Cardinals could not do in nine innings. Vierling produced the Tigers’ first three runs by leading off the second inning with a single and scoring on a double and then tripling the lead with his two-run homer in the third. Each of the rallies ignited or punctuated by Vierling illustrated what the Cardinals have lacked: extra bases.
Through a month of games, the Cardinals’ slugging percentage ranks toward the bottom of the majors. They have the fewest homers in the majors to go with the second-lowest batting average (.220) in the National League. The crux of the season thus far comes down to two numbers.
The rival Milwaukee Brewers have a .339 on-base percentage.
The Cardinals have a .338 slugging percentage.
Milwaukee is getting on base at a greater clip than the Cardinals are totaling bases.
“Yes, you create opportunities, but those opportunities are when you’re touching multiple bases per swing,†Marmol said. “That matters, and that just hasn’t been the case to this point. If I were to narrow it down to one thing, it comes down to slug.â€
Several times Wednesday, the Cardinals were one extra-base hit from upending Vierling’s lead. Once Tigers starter Kenta Maeda left after six strong innings, the Cardinals immediately greeted Detroit’s bullpen with back-to-back singles by Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Arenado. The inning went sideways when Paul Goldschmidt, who had four hits in Tuesday night’s game, bounced into a double play turned at third by Vierling, and then, the Tigers played matchup. Lefty Joey Wentz entered and struck out Alec Burleson to end the inning, just as right-hander Alex Lange entered an inning later and struck out Willson Contreras to unplug the Cardinals’ chances in the eighth inning. The Cardinals had six base runners in the final five innings, but not one reached third — and there wasn’t a single extra-base hit. A potential double drilled by Nolan Gorman went unluckily at the first baseman and became a line-out double play.
“We have slug in our group, just naturally,†Marmol said. “We have guys (who) that is their game. It just hasn’t been their game to this point. That is the frustrating part. If we are what we normally are offensively, then it looks very different.â€
Both of the Cardinals’ comeback rallies in Tuesday’s doubleheader — one of which netted a win — had similar traits. In the ninth inning of Game 1, Arenado and Goldschmidt both reached base before Burleson tied the game and a sacrifice fly won it. In Game 2, immediately ahead of Burleson’s three-run homer, Arenado and Goldschmidt reached base.
“I was joking with them to get on base for the big boys,†Burleson said.
There’s truth in comedy.
The Cardinals lineup radiates from their All-Star corner infielders, and while the lineup has changed, that reality has not. A speed bump the Cardinals continue to encounter, even in Motor City, hasn’t changed either. Goldschmidt moved out of the No. 2 spot in the lineup to No. 5 so that Contreras, one of the team’s leading hitters, could have the prominent spot. In Detroit, Contreras delivered the Cardinals’ lone run Wednesday with a solo homer but otherwise struggled. He was 0 for 9 in the doubleheader with six strikeouts. He struck out nine times in the series.
Following modern lineup dynamics, teams often put their best hitter at the No. 2 spot because of the odds favoring plate appearances with runners on base. That spot for the Cardinals has hit .178 this season with a .297 slugging percentage and twice as many strikeouts (42) as hits (21). Only six extra-base hits have come from that spot, including Contreras’ homer Wednesday, his fifth of the season.
“We’ve played a lot of close games,†starter Miles Mikolas said. “If we get a ball that’s a foot more to the left or right, maybe it’s a fair ball down the line and it’s extra bases. But for us, it seems to be a foul ball or a line drive turns into a double play there for Gorman in a big spot. Those are kind of just hang-with-them moments. Over the course of the season, I think a lot of those things have a tendency to even out. We’re going to lose some tough games where things don’t go our way, and we’re going to catch some tough breaks and maybe even win some games that maybe we shouldn’t have. Luck will favor the prepared.â€
Mikolas allowed three runs to Vierling in the first three innings and then caught his groove and enough grounders to author six innings and a quality start.
The right-hander returns to ºüÀêÊÓƵ with a better feel for his curveball and the lower edge of the strike zone after working with strings in his bullpen session. He stretched strings near home plate so that he could visualize throwing down in the zone, and once he got there consistently Wednesday, he retired the final 10 Tigers he faced. The game turned then on a curveball he left up in the zone to Vierling and a change-up drilled into the gap for a double. Asked how extra-base hits changed the game against him, Mikolas agreed.
“It only takes one,†he said.
Don’t the Cardinals know it.
“It’s not like guys have to change who they are to get more extra-base hits,†Marmol said. “Goldy drives the baseball. Nolan drives the baseball. Gorman drives the baseball. Contreras drives the baseball. If you go down (the lineup). Noot drives the baseball. It’s just we haven’t up to this point. We will.â€